The Beatles In Scotland

I recently enjoyed reading Ken McNab's fascinating book - The Beatles In Scotland.

McNab digs into Lennon's childhood holidays in Durness and love of the Highlands, his Scottish relatives and his trip up north (and car crash) with Yoko and children that resulted in them spending a week in hospital. There is a chapter on the Scottish Beatle - Stuart Sutcliffe, fantastic memories from photographers like Harry Benson, fans, Scottish musicians that played and toured with them and plenty on the Mull of Kintyre and on McCartney's drug bust when he was caught growing cannabis with great quotes from his Scottish lawyers.

I would thoroughly recommend the book to fellow Scottish fans of The Beatles. For the purposes of this blog though, I'll share a few stories. A full list of dates The Beatles (and Silver Beetles) played in Scotland is listed at the end.

Tales of their little known 1960 tour when they were still The Silver Beetles supporting Johnny Gentle, a fellow Liverpudlian, are truly remarkable. Did Scotland experience the first signs of Beatlemania?

Arguably yes, although the boys didn't win the hearts of everyone. The 5 Silver Beetles in 1960 were Lennon (19), McCartney (17 and just weeks from school exams), Stuart Sutcliffe (19 and born in Edinburgh), Harrison (17) and Tommy Moore (36) the latest in a long line of ad-hoc drummers.

Their first ever Scottish set included One After 909 (later to appear on Let It Be) and covers of songs by Elvis, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry and Little Richard.

Lennon reportedly got in a clinch with a local girl called Wilma and pissed off her boyfriend!

The Beatles were skint and Johnny Gentle had to phone the promoter to advance the boys more cash. It sounds like Gentle looked after them and spotted their potential and recognised their charm. The lads ended up having local girls stitching their shirts at one point. They slept in their van after their show in Nairn.

On the 1960 tour Sir Paul has said 'It was important in helping us get our relationships right with each other.'

Come January 1963 The Beatles were straight from a residency in the red light district of Hamburg to playing the delights of Elgin, Dingwall and the Bridge of Allan. It must have been a comedown! Although in Hamburg they played for up to 6-hours at a time, on this tour it was short 40-minute sets and by this point Ringo was on drums and Love Me Do had been released. Still, 200 was their biggest crowd when they played Aberdeen.

But come their June and October shows, Beatlemania was in force.

Legendary Scottish music journalist and broadcaster, the late Stewart Cruickshanks, was just 12 when he saw them at the ABC in Edinburgh in 1964. The Twist and Shout EP was the first record he ever bought.

Stewart told Ken; 'The pervading atmosphere was one of bedlam. The kids, and especially the girls, were there to let off steam. And they did. It was viscerally exciting because you knew you were part of a special moment, and you felt at the same time that you shouldn't be part of it.'

Stewart continued; 'When they came on stage, I had never heard so much noise in my life. I don't think I was too bothered, though, because it was just enough to see them. You had the records if you wanted to listen to the Beatles.'

I'll leave other stories and quotes to the book. It is a must for any fellow Scottish fans of The Beatles, a really fascinating insight into their development and what happened in Scotland; from 1960 all the way through to the Mull of Kintyre and beyond.

The Beatles, STV's Roundup interview with the Fab 4 from 1964

20/05/60 - Town Hall, Alloa
21/05/60 - Northern Meeting Ballroom, Inverness
23/05/60 - Dalrymple Hall, Fraserburgh
25/05/60 - St Thomas's Hall, Keith
26/05/60 - Town Hall, Forres
27/05/60 - Regal Ballroom, Nairn
28/05/60 - Rescue Hall, Peterhead

03/01/63 - Longmore Hall, Keith (cancelled)
03/01/63 - Two Red Shoes, Elgin
04/01/63 - Town Hall, Dingwall
05/01/63 - Museum Hall, Bridge of Allan
06/01/63 - Beach Ballroom, Aberdeen

07/06/63 - Odeon Cinema, Glasgow w/ Roy Orbison

05/10/63 - Odeon Cinema, Glasgow
06/10/63 - Calton Cinema, Kirkcaldy
07/10/63 - Caird Hall, Dundee

29/04/64 - ABC Cinema, Edinburgh
30/04/64 - Odeon Cinema, Glasgow

19/10/64 - ABC Cinema, Edinburgh
20/10/64 - Caird Hall, Dundee
21/10/64 - Odeon Cinema, Glasgow

03/12/65 - Odeon Cinema, Glasgow (2 shows)

Mr Tambourine Man

Cover version of the month #26

Hi we're called Teenage Fanclub and this is a song by The Byrds

This is how I was introduced to the legendary Bob Dylan song. I recorded Teenage Fanclub live from Reading off the radio back in 1992. I was immediately hooked on the chiming guitars and flowing lyrics and the imagery of the song, the title too!

The Fanclub version was pretty true to the 2-minutes of pure guitar pop genius that The Byrds produced in homage to Dylan back in April 1965, only a month after Dylan had released his classic Bringing It All Back Home LP. The jingle-jangle mentioned in Dylan's chorus is replicated by beautiful 12-string Rickenbacker in the Byrd's version.

The Byrd's manager had acquired an acetate of Dylan's original recording of the song, ear-marked for Another Side Of Bob Dylan, but the author decided the song was special and he hadn't captured it correctly, so he held it back for his next LP, re-recording it in January 1965. Ironically the month The Byrds recorded their version!

One of Dylan's many masterpieces, Mr Tambourine Man is a flowing psychedelic poem that lasts 5-minutes and 27 seconds, during which time Dylan barely pauses for breath (either singing or playing harmonica) and a guitarist called Bruce Langhorne plays some exquisite lead guitar.

The Byrds cut out most of the verses and in 2 and a half minutes they produce something utterly compelling and vital. The harmonies are glorious, the guitar riff is one that must surely have made kids pick up a guitar. Roger McGuinn's lead vocals are sublime, suiting the dreamy and surreal lyrics penned by Dylan.

 Dylan played around with Mr Tambourine Man a lot, producing a remarkable version on his Live At The Budokan album which was one of the first Dylan albums I bought. Listen to the flute and the incredible organ solo - what a band! You can listen to this version below along with the original, the glorious Byrds cover and also one by Stevie Wonder.

Previous covers of the month

1. You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' 

2. Going Back To My Roots

3. Nirvana play The Vaselines

4. Slip Inside This House

5. Top 10 covers by Teenage Fanclub

6. Only Love Can Break Your Heart

7. Time For Livin' 

8. Sound and Vision 

9. All Along The Watchtower

10. I Am The Walrus 

11. Guiding Star

12. You’ll Never Walk Alone

13. Hurt
14. This Guy's In Love With You

15. I Wish I Never Saw The Sunshine
16. California Soul
18. Wonder wall 
19. Dancing In The Dark
20. Always On My Mind
21. Ceremony
22. Heroes
23. Different Drum
24. Wild Horses

25. Respect

Laugh At Me - Sonny Bono

On Friday night my good friend Gordon pulled a battered looking 7-inch record from his bag, placed it on a turntable, dropped the needle and let it play. There was a hiss and a crackle and then it kicked in. It sounded absolutely sensational; warm, raw, vital and urgent.

Gordon was punching the sky, singing a-long with that sense of sheer abandonment that a good song can make you do.

I had to find out who it was, it sounded pretty Dylan-esque. The song was by Sonny Bono and it is called Laugh At Me.

Listening back now I clearly missed the intro as Sonny introduces the song;

“I never thought I'd cut a record by myself but I got somethin' I wanna say. I want to say it for Cher and I hope I say it for a lot of people”.

In under 3-minutes, Sonny delivers an absolute masterpiece over huge Spector-esque production, building and building until he screams So I don't care, let 'em laugh at me, if that's the fare, I have to pay to be free

The song flows again until Sonny really cuts loose screaming it's gotta start some place, it's gotta start sometime

I love discovering songs I haven't heard before and my friend Gordon's new night at The Admiral Everything Shakes was a great place to do just that. 2 new young bands and DJ's playing vinyl only. The next night will be on Friday 25th September. I hope to discover some more fantastic music.

This is how Gordon discovered the song;

I discovered it watching the film Good Vibrations which is about Terri Hooley and his record shop which he opened during the troubles in Belfast. Despite this he carries on and releases Teenage Kicks by the Undertones as well as some other good tracks that never got the same acclaim such as Big Time by Rudy. Anyway at the end he puts on a massive punk show in Belfast town hall. It's supposed to raise funds to keep the shop and record label running but he has half of Belfast on the guest list and he loses everything so he gets up with all the bands and he sings laugh at me by sonny Bono. It's a fuckin amazing moment! Glad you liked it!

Why can't I be like any guy?

Why do they try to make me run?

Son of a gun, now

What do they care, about the clothes I wear?

Why get their kicks from making fun, yeah?

This world's got a lot of space

And if they don't like my face

It ain't me that's going anywhere, no

So I don't care

Let 'em laugh at me

If that's the fare

I have to pay to be free

Then baby, laugh at me, and I'll cry for you

And I'll pray for you

And I'll do all the things

That the man upstairs says to do

I'll do 'em for you

I'll do 'em

I'll do 'em all for you

It's gotta stop someplace

It's gotta stop sometime

I'll make sure that she's mine

And maybe the next guy

That don't wear a silk tie

He can walk by and say hi

Say, hi

Instead of why

Instead of why

Instead of why babe

Instead of why

What did I do to you?

I don't know what to do